


Impressive

by wintergalaxy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 1x20, Awkward Skye | Daisy Johnson, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I really overuse that tag huh, Light Flirting, Motel, My First Work in This Fandom, Not Ward friendly, Pre-Relationship, Season 1, The Good Old Days, i miss them, in any way, well you know what I mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 04:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17842775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintergalaxy/pseuds/wintergalaxy
Summary: Skye and Trip bond over their respective betrayals by people they once trusted.





	Impressive

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo I don’t know what this is, but I love Trip and this is an ode to him courtesy of my recent rewatch. He deserved more (and so did Bobbi and Hunter, but that’s a whole other tangent). Obviously referring to Daisy as Skye here because of when it’s set.

“I gotta say, I _am_ impressed,” said a warm male voice from the doorway.

Skye glanced up from her laptop to find Trip standing there, leaning casually on the doorframe. A huge, boyish grin lit up his face. He must have had a secret superpower, because even though she felt so terrible and so exhausted, she couldn’t help smiling back.

Then she frowned, only just processing his words. She shut the laptop, the better to see him. “Back up. What do you mean?”

He stepped inside and crossed the room to sit down at the foot of Simmons’ bed. The seriousness now written across his face didn’t match the usual image Skye had come to expect of him—the him from two seconds before, basically. She leaned on the wall behind her, surprised by the sudden shift in demeanor.

“What I mean is, I know what it feels like to have a son-of-a-bitch Nazi piece of shit for an S.O.,” he began eventually. His face briefly contorted with a storm of emotion, and his voice shook with it. He paused, breathing in and out several times before he spoke again, this time sounding completely measured. “Or sort of S.O., for me anyway, since my official one was at the academy. Either way, I’m talking about someone you trusted, who mentored you, who then screwed you over. I feel your pain. Your anger.”

Skye stared at her lap. Right. That. The betrayal. The thing she had actively been avoiding thinking about ever since she and Coulson took a veritable swan dive out of the plane flown by said betrayer and nearly crash-landed in the middle of a city. The thing that she wound up thinking about anyway because she could no more control her brain than control the weather. That thing that, whenever she inevitably did think about it, she didn’t know whether she should cry or just haul off and _punch something_.

When she looked up again, Skye noticed Trip watching her knowingly. Some of her thoughts must have shown on her face because he grimaced, expression guilty. “Yeah, it’s shit. Sorry for bringing it up, but I just wanted to tell you...I’m impressed by how you dealt with it. Not many folks could be brave as that. You’re a certified badass, Agent Skye.”

“Oh.” Skye flushed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It was a definite ego boost to be called brave—and _had_ anyone else ever called her brave, for that matter?—but she wasn’t sure she really deserved the title. In this case or basically ever.

“I’m gonna be honest, I was scared as hell,” she confessed, squinting at the ceiling. “Ward’s a super-spy. A lying bastard with six personalities, but still a super-spy. He could’ve killed me in about thirty different ways I’ve never heard of. I was terrified he would find out I was playing him. Then when he _did_ —because my stupid ass turned him in thinking some street cops could take him in—he kidnapped me, no pretenses about ‘meeting up with the team’ this time. I was so sure I was gonna die. Mike—well, Deathlok now, I guess—was the only other person there, and he’s an _actual cyborg_ with frickin...laser arms and shit. And I couldn’t escape the handcuffs, or fly the plane even if I somehow could. The whole time, I was so sure they were gonna dump my body somewhere. I unlocked the drive to save Ward’s life, then I spent the whole rest of the time imagining my funeral because I was useless now. How is any of that brave? Isn’t it more...weak, than anything?” She stopped babbling and waited for his answer.

Trip flopped back horizontally across the bed, looking pensive. “Don’t sweat it, it’s not weak. You can be scared and still be brave, you know. Trust me, the number of times I’ve nearly pissed myself in wonky situations is far higher than I wanna admit.”

Skye couldn’t help but laugh incredulously, momentarily pulled out of her self-deprecating stupor. “I’m sorry, did you just say _‘wonky?’”_

Trip held up his hands. “Hey. It’s a legit word, I used it. No takebacks now.” He stopped and tilted his head. “Really? No comments on the ‘nearly-pissed-myself’ confessional?”

“I’m more interested in the whole ‘calling yourself brave’ thing,” Skye quipped back, leaning forward to fix him with a fake-serious glare, like she’d seen the others do in interrogations. “Aren’t you s’posed to let other people do that for you? Isn’t that a bit, I don’t know, arrogant?”

Trip grinned. “Girl, ’tis not arrogance if it’s just stating facts. I’m brave and I know it. I ain’t past complimenting myself.”

Skye snorted. This guy was ridiculous, but refreshingly, not in an obnoxious way. And she felt relaxed around him, which was saying something because apart from the original Bus group, she rarely clicked with new people. Charmed them, sure, like she did with Quinn back in Malta, but feeling herself with them was something else entirely. Trip was different somehow. Easy to get along with, like they’d been friends their entire lives.

Skye shook her head to forcibly clear it. Now was not the time to go back to childlike daydreams of what might have been if she’d met any of them—Coulson, May, Fitzsimmons, Trip, or even Ward, before he became evil—sooner. She focused back on Trip’s lilting voice.

“...and seriously,” he was saying, mind clearly back on the weighty part of the conversation, “you _were_ brave. Hope you know that. And believe it.”

Skye bowed her head a bit, still too embarrassed by the compliment to address it head-on. “If you say so.”

“I do say so.”

She laughed again, softly. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. “I really like you, Trip. I’m glad you’re a part of this team.”

“Me, too. Even though SHIELD’s blown up, you all keep going, because it’s what’s right. I admire that. You guys are like a cute little family, but lethal and badass. Not just a simple special-ops team. Thanks for accepting me, even if I’m basically the long-lost son of that cousin you never talk about.”

Skye scrunched her nose. “If Garrett’s the cousin, then you’re definitely not his son. You’re too nice, too...I dunno, not evil.”

Trip raised his eyebrows at her. “Then who am I?”

“You’re like…” she fumbled around for a role to give him. “You’re like, the boyfriend someone brought home who turns out to be more a member of the family than the psychotic son, so we adopt you. The psychotic son being Ward, of course.”

He glanced at her, eyes teasing. “Whose boyfriend?”

 _Mine, ideally_ , she thought to herself.

Trip snorted.

Skye froze. Her heart pounded; her face burned. Crap, crap, crap. She said that out loud, didn't she? That was a pass, wasn’t it? How could she be so awkward? She wasn’t normally like this.

But Trip was still smiling, perhaps wider than ever, thank everything. “Tell you what. When we finally knock Garrett and Ward’s teeth in—and we _will_ —let’s go get a drink to celebrate. Toast to the demise of Nazis near and far.”

Skye blushed even more. “I can get behind that.”

They stared at each other for a happy, comfortably silent moment before Coulson’s voice called from outside by the pool. “Trip, you think your grandfather would let us borrow some stuff of his?”

Skye wanted to telepathically punch him. The dude usually had better timing.

Trip winked as he stood up to go to Coulson. “See ya later, Agent Brave.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and feedback are always appreciated!
> 
> Find me on tumblr @hopewolves.


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